Ponta Delgada Hospital begins an investigation to determine the cause of the fire

A hospital in Ponta Delgada in the Azores has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire that broke out on Saturday, but the president of the medical unit said the electrical panel had been tested.

“At an extraordinary meeting of the board of directors on May 6, an investigation process was launched to effectively establish the causes of the fire,” said Hospital Divino Espirito Santo Santo (HDES) President Manuela Gomes de Menezes.

The fire at the Ponta Delgada hospital, which broke out at 9:40 a.m. local time on Saturday (10:40 a.m. in Lisbon) and was declared extinguished only at 4:11 p.m., forced the transfer of all hospitalized patients.

At the time of the fire, there were 333 patients in the medical facility, 240 had to be transferred.

In a statement without the right to questions from journalists, the president of the board of directors of the largest Azores hospital assured that the electrical panel where the fire allegedly started had passed the necessary checks.

“The last two inspections that were carried out on the general/central electrical panel of Divino Espirito Santo were carried out in November 2023 and March 2024. This means that the checks were relevant,” he emphasized.

Manuela Gómez de Menezes also added that “work is underway to replace the systems” and that the priority after the fire was declared extinguished was “to restore some power” to allow the evacuation of patients.

According to the person in charge, HDES currently operates nine generators that are “completely incapable of maintaining” the unit at “full operation.”

“A more robust electrical solution is currently being assembled, which will allow testing to be carried out to determine the extent of the damage,” he added.

The hospital president also stressed that soot from the fire “degraded water quality” and that smoke affected “all technical air control areas.”

Also, according to Manuela Gómez de Menezes, the administration expects to put “part of the water network” into operation by the end of next week, while the HDES telephone exchange has already been restored.

The board also said it intends to provide weekly updates on the situation.

The government of the Azores declared a state of public disaster on Sunday due to the fire in order to “accelerate procedures” that will allow the activities of the largest Azorean health facility to be normalized in a “short period of time.”

A report on the damage from the fire has not yet been released.